It’s great to have an idea for a business and to pursue it with passion and gusto. However, starting or operating a company without having a firm understanding of your target market and current economic conditions is operating in a dangerous vacuum. One of the main reasons more than 50 percent of startups fail in the first five years is ignorance of the information that can make or break a company’s bottom line. It is therefore vital for business owners to know where to turn for this information.
A CPA in Tampa from Reliance Consulting, LLC, is a great resource for this kind of information. Since 1984, Reliance has helped hundreds of small Florida businesses navigate a wide range of economic conditions. It starts with a plan, of course, but a plan based on no data is merely guesswork.
The federal and state governments provide important data for businesses, and there are a number of organizations that track economic and market data and offer their results either on-line or through print publications. These data bases and publications include:
- The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS Codes)
- FedStats
- Statistical Abstract of the United States
- Statistics of U.S. Businesses from U.S. Census County Business Patterns
- The Small Business Association Office of Advocacy
- STAT-USA
- American FactFinder
- Monthly Census Bureau reports
- Labor demographics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics
There are many other sources of information, any one of which may contain the data that are crucial components for helping form your short- or long-term strategy. To learn more about sources of economic or market information, contact Reliance Consulting. We have helped hundreds of Florida businesses achieve success since opening our doors in 1984.